Sydney-Hobart: Age of the supermaxi is coming to an end

Comanche’s win could mark the beginning of the end for yacht racing’s dinosaurs.

Supermaxi Comanche sails up the Derwent early on Saturday, accompanied by a flotilla of spectator craft, to claim line honours in the Sydney to Hobart. Picture: AFP

Comanche may have creamed the opposition for line honours in this year’s Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, but it could mark the beginning of the end for yacht-racing’s dinosaurs.

Within a year of two, foiling monohulls capable of far higher sustained speeds than the supermaxis will be the stars of the ocean racing world.

In one of the most hotly contested Sydney-Hobart races for years, Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant’s Comanche proved to be the fastest off-the-wind supermaxi in the world when she romped away with the line honours victory in the 628 nautical mile race on Saturday morning.

Comanche finished the bluewater classic just after 7.30am, having made the most of strong overnight winds down Tasmania’s east coast. She slowed in the River Derwent, hit by light winds, finishing in a time of one day, 18 hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds.

The four other supermaxis were left looking less than super. InfoTrack, a yacht often described by her owner Christian Beck as “a dog”, was second over the line some 45 minutes behind Comanche. Wild Oats, the nine-time winner of the race, was third, another 58 minutes behind InfoTrack, and just 38 seconds ahead of the Hong Kong registered Scallywag.

The fifth boat home was the recently modified Black Jack, which was 15 minutes behind Scallywag.

All the yachts but Wild Oats had led the race at one stage of the journey, which was dominated by downwind running.

Scallywag reportedly hit a shark during the wild run down the Tasmanian east coast on Friday night and was forced to stop sailing to remove it from where it was wedged in the yacht’s keel.

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But changes in yacht design mean this could be the last time the five local supermaxis dominate the race.

No new supermaxis have been built since US web billionaire Jim Clark commissioned Comanche in 2014 and only two others, the American owned Rio 100, and Mike Slade’s British supermaxi Leopard, still regularly sail.

Rio 100, the only supermaxi still equipped with manual coffee grinder winches rather than electric or hydraulic power, is on the market with an asking price of $US300,000 ($430,000).

It is expected the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia will change the Hobart race rules to allow a monohull yacht equipped with hydrofoils, provided it passes stability safety tests, to compete in next year’s race. Foil equipped monohulls will compete in the next America’s Cup in New Zealand in 2021 and the next edition of The Ocean Race.

Cooney said on Saturday he expected a foiling 60-footer to beat his supermaxi in the next two to three years.